2024 ANNUAL PROJECT HEALTH FOR LEON NEWSLETTER
December 5, 2024
Dear PHL friends,
I am writing this to you around the holiday season to reflect on how fortunate we are to get you support for our mission. I know that your generosity may have reached other charities, or our brothers and sisters from Western North Carolina that were affected by hurricane Helene. I am deeply thankful to you for choosing to support our organization, and for sharing your time, skills, and monetary donations to keep our medical missions in Nicaragua going.
This year, we went to Nicaragua in March and saw a total of 149 patients in clinic, including post-surgery patients that our team operated on in December 2023. Our team also obtained cardiac CT scans for patients that qualified for percutaneous aortic valve replacements, and we performed several diagnostic procedures for patients that were considered for surgery later in the year. More than half of the patients seen during that trip required a procedure, whether a catheter-based intervention with Dr. Yeung or Dr. Frantz, or surgery with Dr. Elisa’s team.
In June, Dr. Brumfield led a team of 16 volunteers to see patients in clinic and do procedures to treat heart rhythm disorders. In addition to seeing more than 100 patients in clinic and performing 20 procedures to treat heart rhythm disorders, Dr. Brumfield and Dr. Cohen teamed up to obtain a CARTO™ ablation system. This is very advanced technology used to perform ablations and, to our knowledge, it was the first time a team of medical professionals used this system in Nicaragua. We thank Dr. Brumfield, Dr. Cohen and the whole team for such terrific achievement this year.
Finally, we went back in September with the ambitious plan to spend two weeks in Nicaragua and perform catheter-based procedures, implant pacemakers, and open-heart surgeries. We recruited a total of 30 volunteers that either worked continuously or overlapped for one or the entire two weeks. We ended up seeing a total of 70 patients, with 38 of them receiving life-saving procedures including 14 open heart surgeries. We had Dr. Elisa Lopez leading the surgical team as well as our new friend Dr. Rafael Rodriguez Lecoq. One of Dr. Rodriguez’s expertise is complex surgeries of the aorta. Elisa and Rafael, along with volunteers from Portugal, performed various complex surgeries during their time in Nicaragua, including a complex repair of the ascending aorta. That surgery was the first-of-its-kind done in Leon. The interventional team led by Dr. Vavalle and Dr. Yeung also performed multiple live-saving procedures. We planned to perform the first catheter-based aortic valve replacement, but since not all the stars aligned at this time, we will continue to work on that next year.
Despite the long hours and the limited resources, we felt happy to serve and change the lives of those in need. Our friends from Nicaragua worked shoulder to shoulder with us, and without their help, we couldn’t have done as much as we did. I am grateful for their commitment and involvement with our work. We learned a lot from that trip, we have identified our strengths and roadblocks, and we have put a plan in place to deliver more effectively our care and our resources.
PHL also sent or carried with our missions supplies and equipment to Nicaragua with an estimated value of $146,024. Donations made up much of these items. The equipment included the Carto ablation system, intracardiac probes to perform advanced imaging of the heart and surgical instruments to perform open heart surgeries. The supplies were used to perform catheter-based interventions and open-heart surgeries. We thank Medtronic, Abbott, Edwards, TeleFlex, Ethicon, Zoll, and MAP International for their support with our mission.
Education and training of Nicaraguan health professionals remains one of PHL’s leading missions. We have co-sponsored the training of a cardiac perfusionist who is getting training at UNICAR in Guatemala City. We are thankful to our friends from UNICAR for their help with this. Our team will continue to support training and education of those key health professionals to improve the quality of medical care in Nicaragua.
For 2025, we plan to return to Nicaragua in late February to run two or three clinics and see as many patients as possible. Jeff Brumfield plans to return in May to do clinic and perform procedures to treat heart rhythm problems. The surgical trip will be in late June and the interventional team will travel there in September.
PHL receives no government funding; therefore, our work depends on private donations. Medical equipment, supplies, and shipping are very expensive, so your financial contributions are needed for PHL to continue its mission of helping the people of Nicaragua. We are a 501(C)(3) so your contributions are tax deductible. There are two ways to contribute:
- By check made payable to PHL and mailed to the address found in our website.
- Through our web site using the “Donate” link.
We value our volunteers, and if interested, submit the volunteer form on our website. Our volunteers’ documented expenses are also considered a donation to PHL and, therefore, tax deductible. If you would like additional information about serving as a PHL volunteer, please contact us at: projecthealthforleon@gmail.com
On behalf of Project Health for Leon, I would like to thank you for your valuable support.
Carlos A. Espinoza, MD, FACP, President